The Vindictive Stranger Ch. 01

Author's Note for readers: this contains a grisly prelude to revenge and has a great deal of controversial ideas. It is not meant to advocate anti-abortion sentiments, but rather to use the issue as the basis for a Gothic horror tale of vengeance and magic. It is intended for a theme befitting Halloween. Don't start anonymously flaming or trolling for what characters say and do, since they are purely fictitious.

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Gunderson Family Planning Clinic, Long Island, New York:

Dr. Martin Gunderson was an abortionist, and made no bones about that fact. That was his chosen profession. His clinic specialized in 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions, mostly for teenage girls who wished to graduate from high school, as well as career women whose birth control had failed or been forgotten. At first, he had been an OB/GYN exclusively, but he had crossed an ethical line at some point by performing a few abortions for desperate rape victims. When he realized that this could make him more money than live births, he left the hospital and opened a "family planning" clinic.

There were certainly drawbacks. Protesters blocked the entrances at times, people made death threats and called him a "baby-killer", and he was no longer welcome in his parents' house. His first wife had left him when he had an affair with a representative of a feminist group that had rallied behind him. The divorce cost him a bit, but his new activist friends included many judges and lawyers, so he pulled through without being taken to the cleaners.

Martin eventually ended his affair with the activist, since she was married herself and didn't wish to lose her wealthy husband. He had a number of flings with nurses, both before, during, and after his next marriage to a prominent state legislator. He ended up with 2 failed marriages, 2 failed relationships, and one broken engagement. After that, he shrugged it off and resorted to expensive call girls for the foreseeable future. The engagement was the last straw: he had broken it himself, when the woman turned abusive on him. Admittedly, he kept dating "society women", which was a major factor in his misery. They were too high maintenance and prone to drug abuse, as was the case with his ex-fiancée.

He had no idea that his situation, after years of improving, was about to turn for the worse. He had made an enemy that no one could stop, buy off, or intimidate. His luck failed him, because he lacked an essential understanding of the nature of the Cosmos and the afterlife. He didn't realize that those denied a life by unnatural means at an early age would be granted a new, indestructible body with superhuman powers and the right to live as long as they pleased. They generally opted for vengeance against those whom had murdered them, and this one was no different.

Unnamed Apartment Complex, Brooklyn, New York:

"Jonathan Nelson" looked perfectly human. He had a strong, virile, masculine body, but that just made him seem like a fitness freak. His features and complexion suggested that he was of mixed racial origin. Few people saw the golden eyes of a demon. Few realized that demons were nothing more than murdered souls seeking vengeance.

Everything had been told to him at once, which would have been more than enough to overload a mortal's brain. Since he wasn't mortal anymore, however, he could take the information. Someone had killed him too young, so he had been given back what this person had stolen from him. What made it better was that he could do things that most people could not, he didn't have to die again until he was ready, and he kept all of the knowledge that he chose to place in his now mature and adult brain. This was his karmic due, so his new status as a demon was sanctioned by the Gods.

He who had once been a mere fetus was now a grown man and appeared to be about 25. His new, manly form was equipped with unusually large genitals as well, for a variety of reasons. No one would realize that he now possessed powers that would enable him to exact revenge on the people responsible for his murder.

What particularly sickened him was that no one seemed to care that he was dead. There was no funeral for him, no burial, and no fate for his former body except a trip to the closest dumpster. He was treated as garbage, not a deceased relative. He had no friends in the world, no one who mourned his death, and no one who felt outrage regarding his untimely death. Well, if the world was going to be so callous about his fate, he would return the favor with pleasure.

Society made it legal for people to butcher him, so the only justice that would come would be by his own hand. This mortal saying of not taking the law into one's own hands was laughable in his case. He had no other choice but to take the law into his own hands. Besides, Cosmic laws were higher than those of mortals, and karma was chief among them.

Jonathan knew his purpose in life, far more than anyone else. These poor, naïve mortals were about to confront someone who would make a Gothic horror tale seem tame by comparison. He was not Freddy Krueger or Jason. He was a shade. He was a demon. He was real. The Gods favored his cause, and he would be the nemesis of his enemies.

Coldbury Heights, Long Island, New York:

Melanie Hatch was simply glad and relieved to be done with it. The abortion had been a little tense, but the last trace of her previous marriage was gone. She could date and find a more faithful guy now. Louis was just plain scum. She hadn't denied him sex any more than most women did, but he still fucked around on her and blamed her for it. There would be no custody issues, either, now.

She looked at her reflection in the vanity, confident that her date for the night seemed a good man whom she could control. Her primary rule in relationships was that a man had to do as she pleased. If he was willing to kiss her ass and do her bidding, everything was fine. If he objected to that deal, he would be cut off. This was normal and reasonable, right? She was not the sort of woman to tolerate any nonsense or independence on the part of a man. If she had the power of her sex, why not use it to get her way?

This was the sort of thing that her mother had done, and she always assumed that other men could accept it, if Daddy accepted it. She didn't know about his hypertension, his ulcer, or his drinking problem. She never realized that his fatal stroke had been caused by the stress of trying to keep from snapping at his wife or leaving her.

At 32, Melanie had a nice career as a travel agency manager, and she thought that she knew everything about life. She thought that she was on the verge of finding a great husband to placate her and make her friends green with envy. She had no concept of what awaited her in the near future. Her son, her only offspring in the years of her entire life, was about to smash her narcissistic plans. He was one man who would not bow to her.

Armand's Bistro, Long Island, New York, 7:30 PM:

Melanie Hatch enjoyed the company of her date, Tommy Van Nguyen. She didn't like that he seemed a little independent and opinionated, but she thought that she could break him of that in time. That assumed, of course, that she would try to date him long enough to make such an effort worth her time.

Tommy was a 34 year old Vietnamese fellow with half-hearted Catholic beliefs and a growing dislike of his date. He didn't let her see it, but he had already decided that no second date would happen. He had just chosen not to reveal his plans, since he still wanted to play this manipulative bitch for what he could take from her. He figured that if she was going to play games with him, she earned a little deception in return. If that meant lying to get her in the sack, so be it. It could be a game of who lied the best.

"So, Tommy, Janice tells me that you're a lawyer. What kind of law do you practice?" she inquired, since any prospective husband had to make some money.

"Corporate law, of course. I do mergers, acquisitions, and leverage buyouts. I'm basically the hired gun of corporate raiders and other multi-billionaires. You're a travel agent, right?" he returned the favor.

"Actually, I run my own agency, but yes. I like my work. It allows me to see a lot of people and learn a bit about the world. Believe me when I tell you that I am rather jaded. I'll admit that upfront. I've seen some assholes and real SOBs. You live in Manhattan?" she clarified.

"Yes, I do. I like being closer to my workplace, which is naturally not far from Wall Street. I'm with Johnston and Mann. They're a rather old, but steady corporate law firm. They prefer a good reputation with the corporate giants instead of a high public profile. I'm an associate, of course, but I look forward to becoming a partner soon. The bosses seem impressed with my work," Tommy smirked.

Naturally, he didn't tell Melanie that he fucked his secretaries and paralegals on a frequent basis. For that matter, he wasn't about to tell her that he fucked Janice now and then. If Janice hadn't bothered to tell her, he wasn't about to do so and ruin his little game with her. Janice was Melanie's best friend (and occasional sex partner, when the husbands weren't looking), so she had the obligation to tell Melanie that stuff. If she failed, it wasn't Tommy's responsibility.

Melanie struck Tommy as being the sort of royal bitch who cheated and justified it, denied her husband sex, and then got upset when her husband did the same thing as herself. Tommy considered marriage to women like this a joke, and treated dating them the same way. It was a game of who could deceive whom. There were times when women like this made him despise women in general.

Janice wasn't much better, either. She was a trophy wife who constantly fucked around on her aging, senile husband. Of course, she had some excuse: hubby was impotent and couldn't take ED pills because of his heart disease. She could have still gotten him to eat her out or use fingers. She could have divorced him. Instead, she had numerous affairs with men like Tommy and women like Melanie.

Tommy didn't consider himself morally superior, but at least he wasn't cheating on anyone. He only cuckolded other men. These women were sluts who would fuck around anyway. Why should it be other men instead of him who got to enjoy their bodies?

The main reason that Tommy didn't have a serious relationship was that work made him a poor SO half of the time. The secondary reason was that he loved fucking around too much. Being a womanizer was the perfect diversion from his work.

He also didn't want to infect some innocent party, such as a wife or girlfriend. He was sure that he would end up cheating on her, so he avoided that issue by fucking only casual partners and so-called "dates". He didn't give a damn about infecting the cheating sluts and he wasn't worried about husbands who were probably already infected anyway.

"Well, I'm finished with supper. Can we get the check? I have to go home," Melanie abruptly informed Tommy, interrupting his machinations.

She had decided not to fuck this guy yet. What she didn't realize was that her scheme wouldn't work. Sex or no sex, this was the end of the "relationship". Tommy shrugged and asked for the waiter. He paid him, tipped him generously (as if to reinforce that he was well-off), and drove her home. During the drive, he said nothing, simply laughing in his own head about the jolt that he was about to deliver to this conceited bitch.

Melanie stood at her townhouse door and watched in shock, as Tommy simply got back in his car to leave without kissing her. She felt cheated in some way, as if he rejected her for some reason that escaped her. Perhaps she was too strong for his taste. Her plan to use sex as a means of controlling him had just been defeated.

"Tommy, aren't you forgetting something?" she blurted, stunned at her own desperate reaction.

She wasn't used to men rejecting her, for any reason. Did he just realize that he wouldn't get laid and cut her off in retaliation? That would make him a jerk like Louis, yet she found herself determined to get an answer from him or some kind of closure.

"Not really. You got what you wanted: a free dinner. I got nothing out of this date. I would apologize, but that would be insincere. I have done nothing wrong. I already decided not to date you again. Your refusal to sleep with me just makes me feel better about it. Don't worry, as there are plenty of suckers in New York who will fall into your traps. I'm just not that sort of man. You're not my type.

"I'm into women who are fun, like Janice. Oh, didn't she tell you? I fucked her, more than once. She might be a cheating whore, but at least she isn't a cock-teasing, emasculating bitch. I don't need to spend my time and money on women who only want me around to kiss their asses. Oh, and I know about you fucking her too, so don't go blathering to her old man about it.

"Women like you make me sick. You're nice to everyone except the men that you love or want to date. Those you make grovel to you, screwing them in every unpleasant way, before finally sharing your body with them. Even then, you refuse them when it suits you. No thanks. Don't call me again. Leave me the fuck alone," he reprimanded her, as he pulled out of the driveway in his Audi.

He didn't regret telling her about Janice now. The date was over, as was any association with her. Melanie got the point, as her face showed him when he told her off. She was truly stunned, which was why she hadn't retorted in an angry manner. She was simply not ready for that kind of venom in her direction. She had always dealt it, not received it.

"That bastard! He broke it off because I wouldn't fuck him! He said that I make him sick! Well, he makes me sick, the damned player! How dare he accuse me of being cruel to those I love. I'm not cruel! I just insist on my rights as a modern woman, including the right to dominate men!" Melanie thought out loud, as she entered her townhouse and threw down her purse in frustration.

She was also pissed at Janice for not telling her that she had fucked him. How dare she pass on her sloppy seconds to her! She then realized that Janice probably planned to keep fucking Tommy, even if they had gotten together. It was her friend's idea of a sick joke to play on Melanie. She would give that bitch a piece of her mind! No more friendship and no more sexual favors would be coming Janice's way!

Enraged, Melanie dialed Janice's number.

"Janice, how could you send me one of your fuck buddies? That was a depraved joke, you dirty cunt!" she yelled at her girlfriend.

"Melanie Diane Hatch, calm down! Get a sense of humor and perspective, too! If you stopped being such a self-centered bitch, you'd realize that I did you a favor. You and I have been intimate in more ways than one, so I know you pretty well. I love you in spite of what I know about you.

"Everything is somehow supposed to go your way, you are somehow supposed to have freedom from the rules that you impose on the rest of us, and we are all how somehow supposed to grovel before 'Princess Melanie'! Well, grow up and get over yourself! If you keep up your current attitude, you'll be divorced a dozen times and rely on canine company for the rest of your life!

"I did you a favor, even though I personally think that you deserved to have Louis fuck around on you. It's not like you were faithful to him, either. Worse than that, he never withheld sex from you, while you did with him plenty of times. Let me tell you from personal experience what it's like to have someone deprive you of sex: it sucks! At least Quinn didn't do it on purpose. He can't help that he is impotent.

"Before that, he was a good lover and I was a faithful wife to him. Yes, you heard me! I never fucked anyone else before he went limp. Otherwise, I would have confided in you about it. You might have thought that I was just excusing my conduct, but I was actually a true 'desperate housewife' when I turned to fucking you and men like Tommy. I admit that I am a complete slut now, but that's because I've gotten to enjoy it that way. I don't know if I would be faithful to Quinn at this point, should he somehow get an erection again," Janice countered.

"You needed a date. I got you one. What's more, I found someone with a mind of his own. That would be good for you, if you bothered to think about it. Contrary to what you think, men with balls are healthier and more useful choices than wimps like Louis. Well, strike that. Louis did get some balls, toward the end. I know because I fucked him when he did. Sorry, but you had it coming, especially after cheating on him for so long. Even Quinn is a tougher and manlier guy than the milksops you like to date lately.

"You should be glad that Louis fucked me and some other gals toward the end. Otherwise, he might have snapped and murdered you. I did you a favor there, whether you believe it or not. You're a tough wife for any man to take. I can handle you better as a friend with benefits, because I'm not involved with you. If I was, I would stand up to you and probably give you a grudge fuck with a strap-on. Hell, I'm tempted to do so, even now," her friend scolded her, no longer giving a damn or mincing words. She was tired of the grief Melanie gave her and others.

"So, I'm guessing that you would have fucked Tommy on the side too? Some friend you are, Janice!" Melanie resorted to passive aggression.

"You might mean that sarcastically, but I am a good friend. I make life for your men tolerable enough that they don't slit your throat or strangle you in your sleep. Yes, I'd have fucked Tommy too. It's the least that I could do, given that you would probably have continued fucking me," Janice tongue-lashed Melanie.

"That's not the same thing. We didn't penetrate each other. Besides, guys like it when women fuck each other. They don't mind," Melanie tried to rebut her.

"Bullshit, Melanie! They like it when they see it, not when you do it behind their backs. In any case, if you didn't think that Louis would mind, why did you hide it? Many guys object on the basis of fairness. Fucking around is fucking around, and if girls can do it, so can men. The sex of the other partner is irrelevant. You knew that Louis would object to your little double standard, so you went behind his back. You didn't want him seeing your actions as a green light to screw other women. In other words, you plotted to make him feel obligated to be more faithful to you than you were to him. Now, what the hell kind of wife does that to her husband?" Janice put Melanie in her place.

"What kind of wife screws around on her elderly husband, just because he is impotent? What kind of friend fucks her best friend's husband?" Melanie shouted furiously at Janice.

"The kind of wife who is frustrated and the kind of friend who feels some respect for her best friend's husband for growing back a spine," Janice ripped into Melanie, before hanging up the phone.

She had little patience with Melanie. She might be a decent fuck and an interesting friend, but this routine was getting old by now. The more Janice got to know Melanie, the less she liked her as a person and the more she became convinced that the woman was an absolute psychopath.

376 Wilmington Drive, Long Island, New York:

Louis Hatch spat at his ex-wife's photos as he burned them in succession, ritually trying to summon up the voodoo power taught him by his Haitian uncle and aunt. He hated Melanie with a passion and longed for revenge, as he knew that she had gotten far more from him than she should in the divorce settlement. So, he fucked around a little, but he doubted that he was alone there. He couldn't prove it, but he was certain that her refusal to put out for him recently was due to an affair. It wasn't just her usual "deny to control" routine. She was hiding something.